[Guest post by DRJ]

A rather common situation can become very uncommon when you add money, politics and intrigue, especially in France. The participants:

87-year-old Liliane Bettencourt, heiress of the L’Oreal SA cosmetics empire and one of the richest people in the world.

Her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers. Mother and daughter are no longer on speaking terms.

Photographer Francois-Marie Banier, who is accused of exploiting his relationship with Liliane for financial gain and could be sentenced to three years in prison if convicted.

Bettencourt’s butler, who apparently is not accused of wrongdoing but has provided 21 hours of recordings of the heiress talking to her advisers.

The problem:

“The butler’s lawyer, Antoine Gillot, has vouched for the authenticity of the recordings and the accuracy of excerpts leaked to the press.

In them, Bettencourt’s financial adviser speaks to her as though to a child, and she is sometimes confused. The heiress’ lawyer defended her mental acuity, saying she is simply hard of hearing.

At one point in the taped conversation, adviser Patrice de Maistre reminds Bettencourt that she signed over her private island in the Seychelles to Banier.

“I wanted to give him an island?” a puzzled Bettencourt asks, according to the media excerpts.”

The trial began today but was suspended within hours following suggestions that the foreign accounts were established to help Bettencourt evade French taxes. Over the past weeks, leaks of these allegations of government wrongdoing (as well as other problems) have reportedly sent conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s approval rating to a “dismal 26 percent.”

— DRJ